“To me, they’re borderline action figures.”
That is how J. Lalonde, the vice president of content for Whistle Sports, described the proprietors of the soccer YouTube channel The F2, Billy Wingrove and Jeremy Lynch. With 7.7 million YouTube subscribers and daily soccer content across a variety of platforms, they have become household names in the world of sports content creators, as much due to their soccer skills as well as their original, fun-loving personalities.
Wingrove and Lynch, highly personable and highly skilled in the freestyle arts, have become so popular in recent years that Whistle Sports partnered with them to create a YouTube Premium show — F2 Finding Football, which debuted on Wednesday.
The show hits at The F2’s biggest strengths. Its goal, at a basic level, is to entertain and spread the joy of their majestic freestyling. But it also combines soccer and culture, attempting to strike a balance between the two and find out how they connect.
“The goal is to explore these communities and really understand what makes football thrive, and what brings cultures together through football,” said Lalonde. “We thought (The F2) were the perfect people to help tell the story.”
In the show’s first episode, the guys travelled to Argentina, hoping to discover the country’s distinct, footwork-oriented style of play and find out why it has produced the likes of Diego Maradona and Lionel Messi. Along with special musical guest A$AP Ferg (there will be plenty more of those to come) they choreographed a music video that “blends tango rhythm, trap music and football ‘tekkers.’”
Dancing the tango in Argentina and then studying Diego Maradona’s effect on the Argentine style of play is the perfect microcosm for what The F2 are trying to do. They are blending soccer and culture through their highly popular entertainment, and they’re making a living off it.
Both Wingrove and Lynch are English, and had budding playing careers before they decided to move into the freestyling world. Lynch summed up their ideology on building new content:
“Our ideas come from either the world of football and whatever is on trend at that time,” he wrote in an email. “We always want our content to be topical and authentic so that we can build fan loyalty and engagement and be the go to channel for them. That could be the World Cup and reacting to the big games or creating something to tie into a new hype video game like Fortnite.”
With the help of editors and camera operators, there is content galore on their YouTube channel, the primary way in which they distribute their videos. It’s work, but it’s fun work. It helps when you’re able to collaborate with and be noticed by many of the best soccer players in the world.
As to what advice he’d give to aspiring content creators (of which there are many), Lynch revealed the tenants that he and Wingrove subscribe to.
“Try and find a unique point of view on what you are passionate about and create content that brings that to life,” Lynch says. “Be yourself and enjoy what you do, great content will follow.”
Future episodes will take the guys to various places around the world with guests such as Lil Jon, Steve Aoki, Travis Barker, Steve Nash, Cobi Jones, Radamel Falcao and Meghan Klingenberg among others. Those episodes will be available on YouTube Premium.
[Photo: Whistle Sports]
